The present invention relates to a combine or harvesting machine and, more particularly, to an attachement which is mounted to the auger of the harvesting machine to reduce residue build-up on the auger which inhibits the flow of crop through the harvesting machine.
Conventional corn harvesting machines include a corn-head attachment. The corn-head attachment comprises a plurality of spaced apart row crop dividers. The dividers are arranged in a side-by-side relationship and define crop flow paths through which the crops are conveyed. During harvesting, the crop moves up the dividers along the flow path and the dividers, which are equipped with cutting edges, sever the crop near or at the ground surface. Positioned at the end of each of the flow paths is a converging or corn-head auger, which, together with a series of chains, moves the severed crop towards the central portion of the auger to feed the crops to a feeder housing for further procesing. The crop is fed to the feeder housing from the auger through an opening which tends to create a flow constriction. Under certain conditions, residue, i.e. cornstalks and weeds, collect on the top of the corn-head auger as a result of the contrictive flow path. When excessive build-up occurs, the operator must pause or stop the machine so that the operator can manually remove the residue from the auger. This is extremely time consuming and inefficient.
To resolve this problem, some combines have corn paddles mounted onto the main auger of the corn-head. The corn paddles are mounted to the cylindrical body of the auger and provide a pushing surface to urge the residue through the opening of the feeder housing. The paddles are generally made of rubber and, therefore, are flexible and inflict minimal damage on the crop. Typically, the height of the corn paddles are the same height of the main auger flighting. The flighting on the auger is a thin sheet of metal attached in a spiral fashion to the auger tube. The auger and the corn paddles, however, do not always eliminate the excess residue build-up. Although these paddles have alleviated some of the residue build-up, operators with some frequency are still required to stop the machine and remove residue build-up from the auger. Therefore, there is a need to modify the corn-head auger to eliminate the excessive build-up of residue which blocks the flow of the corn ears to the main feeder house of the combine. Preferably, the auger can be modified with an attachment which can break-up the residue as it collects thereby eliminating the excessive build-up of residue, and yet will inflict minimal damage to the crop.